Fact of the day

Information is the most powerful weapon.

Monday

Fact N°
1471

Daylight savings time killed three men in 1999.

On September 5, 1999, terrorists prepared two time bombs in the West Bank, which was on daylight savings time, and delivered them to their counterparts in Israel, which had only recently switched back to standard time.
Allegedly, the plan was to blow up one Israeli bus in the resort town of Tiberias, and another in the port city of Haifa, but the handlers on the Israeli side misunderstood the time on the bombs. As a result, they exploded an hour sooner than expected, killing three terrorists.

Tuesday

Fact N°
1477

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Modern science has an answer.

According to evolutionary geneticist John Brookfield, cosmologist Stephen Hawking, and even modern thinker Chris Langdon, the egg came first.
Why? DNA.
DNA remains unchanged throughout the life of an organism. Thus whatever the genetic material is inside the egg will be the same as that which is inside the grown adult. In other words, conceived as a chicken, hatched as a chicken, live and die as a chicken -- there is no other way. A soaring eagle won't suddenly plummet to earth because it spontaneously turned into a turkey.
Whatever genetic change there was between chicken -- like parents and the first true chicken inside the egg must have occurred in the reproductive DNA, sealing the deal: the egg came first.

Wednesday

Fact N°
1472

The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.

Lethologica is a product of two Greek terms. The latter part, logica, is a cognate of logos, meaning "word" or "speech." The former part, Letho-, is a little more interesting.
In Greek mythology, Lethe is one of the five rivers in Hades and represents forgetfulness. A sip from Lethe and a soul would forget all about their time alive. This doesn't sound so appealing when you consider what the other four rivers represented: sorrow, lamentation, fire, and hatred.

Thursday

Fact N°
1478

The role of "Best Man" derived from the help needed in abducting a future bride.

Historians and folklorists date the custom to around 200 AD and the Goths of Northern Europe. If potential brides were scarce in a man's own village, he'd look for one in nearby villages, preferably one who was momentarily beyond the protection of her community. To pull off her abduction, he needed something of a "wingman," in this case, the "best man" for the job.
Other associated duties included staying vigilant by the bridegroom's side in case the bride's family came looking for her. The abduction itself is the source of the custom of "carrying the bride over the threshold" of a new home.

Friday

Fact N°
1473

Actor Andy Garcia was born with an undeveloped twin about the size of a tennis ball on his shoulder.

When he was born in Havana in 1956, Andres Arturo Garcia-Menendez (Andy Garcia) had a growth on one shoulder that doctors concluded was a conjoined twin. It was later removed leaving only a small scar.
Conjoined twins -- colloquially known as Siamese twins -- occur about once in every 200,000 births in one of two ways. Dicephalus twins form from fission (the fertilized egg splits only partially) and Thorapagus twins occur through fusion: the stem cells of a separated, fertilized egg fuse together.

Saturday

Fact N°
1474

Only two actors have been nominated for an Academy Award in every decade since the 1960s.

One of those actors is Jack Nicholson, whose nominations came from such films as Easy Rider (1969), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Terms of Endearment (1983), As Good as it Gets (1997) and About Schmidt (2002). In all, Nicholson has received 12 Oscar nominations, winning Best Actor three times.
The other actor is Michael Caine. His nominations came from Alfie (1966), Sleuth (1972), Educating Rita (1983), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), The Cider House Rules (1999) and The Quiet American (2002). Of these nominations, Caine won a Supporting Actor Oscar twice.

Sunday

Fact N°
1475

In the U.S., dietary supplement manufacturers aren't required to prove the effectiveness or safety of their products.

This is the case thanks to a federal law passed in 1994 entitled "The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act." Furthermore, the ingredients aren't monitored or verified by the FDA or any outside agency, meaning the risks (side effects, purity, etc.) of these products aren't known until they actually cause harm to an individual. The law does, however, prevent manufacturers from asserting that their products can cure an illness.
When the law was passed, the size of the industry was enormous: At least 600 such manufacturers made 4,000 products and saw total annual sales around $4 billion.